Removal of Restore Points

To keep up with the retention policy, Veeam Backup & Replication deletes the whole backup file from the backup chain, not data for separate VMs from the backup file. In some situations a certain VM may have fewer restore points than it is specified in retention policy settings. This can happen if a backup job processes a number of VMs or VM containers, and some VMs or VM containers fail to be processed during some job sessions.

Removal of Restore Points from Forward Incremental Chains

In case of a forward incremental backup chain, Veeam Backup & Replication does not remove a restore point immediately. Instead, Veeam Backup & Replication waits for a new full backup (synthetic or active) to be created and a new backup chain to be started. As soon as the last incremental restore point in the "old" backup chain is marked as redundant, Veeam Backup & Replication removes the whole "old" backup chain from the backup repository. For more information, see Retention for Incremental Backup.

For example, a backup job processes 2 VMs: VM 1 and VM 2. According to the retention policy settings, the backup chain must contain 3 restore points. The backup job has already had 5 job sessions and VMs have been processed in the following way:

VM 1 has been successfully backed up 3 times and has 3 restore points

VM 2 has failed to be processed in 2 job sessions and has 1 valid restore point

When Veeam Backup & Replication adds a new restore point to the backup chain, it will not remove the earliest restore point. Veeam Backup & Replication will wait until a new full backup file and 2 incremental backup files are added to the backup chain. After that, it will remove the whole outdated backup chain from the backup repository. Restore points in the new backup chain, at the same time, may contain data for both VMs or for one VM only: Veeam Backup & Replication regards backup files as restore points, not separate VMs in these files.

Removal of Restore Points from Reverse Incremental Chains

In case of a reverse incremental backup chain, Veeam Backup & Replication immediately deletes a redundant restore point when the allowed number of restore points is exceeded. For more information, see Retention for Reverse Incremental Backup.

For example, a backup job processes two VMs: VM 1 and VM 2. According to the retention policy settings, the backup chain must contain 5 restore points. The backup job has already had 5 job sessions and VMs have been processed in the following way:

VM 1 has been successfully backed up 5 times and has 5 valid restore points

VM 2 has failed to be processed in 2 job sessions and has 3 valid restore points

After that, Veeam Backup & Replication runs a new backup job session in which VM 1 and VM 2 are successfully processed. When a new restore point is added to the chain, Veeam Backup & Replication removes the earliest restore point because the number of restore points in the backup chain has exceeded 5. As a result, you will have 5 restore points for VM 1 and 3 restore points for VM 2.